<p>Even after working 30 years in law enforcement, every death investigation he has worked ← especially those involving children ← sticks with him.</p>
<p>Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Duane Burgess has stared at a loaded gun in an undercover drug deal, celebrated with families when they made an arrest in a reported crime and investigated some of the county’s most memorable cases.</p>
<p>But some of the most impactful cases he has worked have involved the deaths of children, where controlling his own emotions was a struggle, he said.</p>
<p>"I can remember every case I worked that involved a child. They stick with you throughout your career," Burgess said.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>Burgess has spent his entire career with the sheriff’s office, working up through the ranks from dispatcher to deputy to investigator and now commander of the Johnson County jail. Now he is seeking to lead the office as sheriff.</p>
<p>He was a cadet firefighter in his teens, but transitioned into law enforcement when he worked with officers at accidents and other incidents. After graduating from Center Grove High School, Burgess was hired as a dispatcher with the sheriff’s office, then as a correctional officer at the jail and then as a sheriff’s deputy. For years, he worked as a deputy at night and at the White River Township Fire Department during the day.</p>
<p>"I filled my days with that," Burgess said. "You just wanted to help people and you did it."</p>
<p>As a road officer, Burgess filled multiple roles, working as a motorcycle officer and as the DARE officer for Union and Creekside elementary schools. He was named detective and assigned to investigate child abuse and sex crimes, and then was asked to work in narcotics. And when Sheriff Doug Cox was elected, he asked Burgess to be the jail commander. That has become his favorite role.</p>
<p>"It’s very challenging, it’s never the same," he said.</p>
<p>When Burgess first went back to the jail as commander in 2010, the size, staffing needed and number of inmates was hugely different from when he worked as a correctional officer in the 1990s, and the experience was eye opening, he said.</p>
<p>He had to learn to constantly look ahead and to plan. If he knew local police were preparing to do a roundup of drug arrests, he had to order extra supplies for the jail, including mattresses, clothing and food. As the number of inmates has continued to tick up, now reaching about 400, he watched as the stress of the crowded situations impacted both employees and inmates.</p>
<p>That work, along with the other roles he has had at the sheriff’s office, have also educated him about the community and the struggles people face.</p>
<p>As a DARE officer, he was able to give students someone in law enforcement to connect with and remember. And while the program was focused on preventing drug abuse, he also was able to talk with the children about self esteem, how to be safe and how to help in their community.</p>
<p>As an investigator, he worked closely with families at the worst time in their lives. He still remembers four shaken baby cases that happened close in time to each other, and how difficult those were. He remembers the autopsies, he remembers seeing babies in the hospital.</p>
<p>Years later, those cases have still instilled in him a strong belief that people who hurt children should face the maximum penalty, he said.</p>
<p>But he also remembers the burglaries and other cases he spent hours investigating, and being able to tell the victims that the suspect had been arrested.</p>
<p>"The family sees it, they see how you worked for them," he said.</p>
<p>And as a drug detective, he learned about another part of society he had never seen before.</p>
<p>He shaved his head, grew a goatee and drove a pickup truck. He never had been around drugs, and quickly had to learn about a whole new world, and constantly wondered how people could live such a broken life, driven by addiction, he said.</p>
<p>When an undercover drug deal was arranged, it was often nerve-wracking. Burgess constantly worried about being recognized as a sheriff’s deputy. And he had a few close calls, including when the person he was buying from pulled out a gun and asked if he wanted to buy it. Burgess casually took the gun and pretended to look it over, as he took a bullet out of the chamber.</p>
<p>But he was also able to make strong criminal cases that sent people to prison, he said.</p>
<p>His years of experience have made him a better person, both at work and at home, Burgess said.</p>
<p>Burgess has lived his entire life in Johnson County, and has never wanted to leave, he said. He’s watched as the county, especially the Center Grove area where he grew up, has developed from farm fields to homes and businesses.</p>
<p>Running for sheriff has been a long-term goal.</p>
<p>"I want the people of Johnson County to be proud of their sheriff’s office," Burgess said.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="The Burgess file" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Name: Duane Burgess</p>
<p>Party: Republican</p>
<p>Residence: Greenwood</p>
<p>Family: Wife, Dee Ann</p>
<p>Occupation: Johnson County jail commander</p>
<p>Educational background: Center Grove High School graduate; graduated from Indiana Law Enforcement Academy, Indiana Law Enforcement Academy Chief School and FBI National Academy</p>
<p>Political experience: None</p>
<p>Memberships: Indiana Sheriff’s Association, Master Mason – Union Village Lodge #545, Murat Shrine – Indianapolis, Johnson County Shrine Club (past president 2012), Johnson County Mini Mystics, Murat Shrine Fireman’s Club, Murat Shrine Police Club, and Fraternal Order of Police – Johnson County Lodge #154.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
